Pastor Carlson Talks Of Journeys To Poorest Areas On Earth

There is a walking stick placed delicately in the corner of the Rev. Lewis Carlson’s office at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Temperance.

The stick came from one of Pastor Carlson’s many trips to poverty-stricken countries in Africa. It is hand-carved in a dark, knobby wood and serves as a reminder that he is simply on a journey, passing through from one place to another.

Much of the décor in the pastor’s office is of an African theme. Pastor Carlson has visited the continent five different times in the last 20 years, visiting villages well off the highway that only locals know exist. Most times he will be the first white man to have visited the community.

“I would joke that my friend was taking me to the ends of the Earth. But it’s sometimes at the ends of the Earth where you find the most life and compassion,” Pastor Carlson said. “What I don’t understand — what keeps me going back there again and again — is that they have a sense of joy while they are starving to death. They have a sense of pure joy and hope — I don’t think I could keep going like that.”

From Sept. 17 to Oct. 9, he visited Malawi, which is located in the southeastern portion of Africa and is one of the world’s least-developed countries.

He doesn’t build churches or provide free health care. He is simply one man hoping to provide a little goodwill to a continent that has very, very little.

“I go there because as a pastor I want them to know more than anything else that God loves them,” he said. “I’m there serving the Lutheran Church as a Lutheran pastor. I believe that churches and individuals need to be connected with other people around the world because there is much more that unites us than divides us.”

Pastor Lewis’s first trip to Africa was on a pastoral exchange program that took him to Zimbabwe and brought an African pastor to America. He was 31 years old at the time.

It was during this first trip that he realized how important things like water or having Bibles printed in their native language would be to these communities. He tries to visit as many areas as he can, but spends much of his time in Malawi.

Pastor Carlson has become very passionate helping to get water wells installed with little villages. Many children become very sick and die from not having access to water.

“Kids are kids wherever. Are you going to walk a half a mile to the river to get fresh water when you can drink dirty water out of a puddle? That’s how they get sick,” he said. “(After a well is installed) I’ll visit and they will be so excited to tell me none of their children have died from drinking dirty water.”

However, lack of food is also a major concern from the areas Pastor Carlson visits. Many of the children he met on this trip will not be alive by this time next year because the village will have run out of food and they will starve.

Over time, the churches where Pastor Carlson is working become invested in the work as he does. The community at St. Paul’s stuffed suitcases full of clothes and toys — even 1,100 pencils — for him to take along. The women created stoles for pastors to wear and 40 dresses for young girls.

During his trip, he takes photos and videos to bring back and show his parishioners to help them better understand the situations of those in Africa. He even hosted a video conference during worship times in Temperance so local children can ask questions of the African pastors about their culture.

As he has changed churches over the years, the relationships he has built with African communities and the programs he has started stay behind.

The churches remain in contact with Pastor Carlson so their communities can continue to give to his causes. He will receive monetary donations that he will forward directly to his colleague, the Rev. Msinkhu, in Malawi. Everything donated to him goes straight to the African countries in need.

To help grow his mission and get more aid to the countries he visits, Pastor Carlson travels to churches all over the Midwest sharing his story with the hope that the community there will want to help out as well. On this particular trip, a church in Indiana, which recently has closed, donated choir robes and hymnals and a mosque near Dearborn also donated prayer mats that Pastor Carlson took to a Muslim school in Africa.

While it is important for local people to learn from his trips, Pastor Carlson believes his travels do more good for those in the impoverished country because they see that others are thinking of them.

“I love Temperance, but I also love Africa and the world,” Pastor Carlson said. “Want to make a difference in their world? Walk in their shoes for just one day. You will realize that the odds are so stacked against them and yet they continue to keep trying.”